Radio Days (1987)

A sweet and clever combination of anecdotes and autobiography, Radio Days draws heavily on Woody Allen's childhood. Fittingly, the unfolding episodes are woven together by music--lovely hits of the 1940s like "In the Mood" and "That Old Feeling." Some episodes are built around radio itself (like the burglars who answer the phone in a house they're burgling and win a radio contest), and others center on the life of a young Jewish boy (Seth Green, clearly playing a version of Allen himself as a child). Though light in tone, Radio Days is an ambitious re-creation not simply of an era, but of radio itself. Nowadays radio is little more than a way to sell pop tunes, but it used to transmit dreams; watching this movie, you get a taste of how inspiring this simpler medium could be. --Bret Fetzer Amazon.com

Wistfully Nostalgic

This has become my favorite Woody Allen film over the years.
It has the right blend of pathos, nostalgia and comedy.
If evokes a bygone era in a manner not unlike "A Christmas Story".
The performances by Woody's "stock troup" are all excellent, especially those of Mia Farrow and Julie Kavner.
The music is excellent (unfortunately the soundtrack album for the film does not contain all the songs.)
The audio/video quality and digital transfer of this DVD are all first-rate.
Essential Woody Allen film.
July 8, 2008

Funny Movie

Even though this movie has been around for awhile, I caught part of it on TV (complete with commercials) and thought it was so funny, I had to get my own copy. Its got a great cast and portrays the early days of radio in a comical way. Mia Farrow was just awesome, the way she screamed, and how she went from her 'dumb blonde' accent to her stuffy nose-in-the-air enunciation of words. Recommmended for general audience. May 21, 2008

Radio Days

One of my favorite Woody Allen movies. An entertaining film about what seemed to be that wonderful era before the advent of television. Despite the harrowing events (The Great Depression and World War II) of that time, "Radio Days" depicts a seemingly simpler, more innocent and less cynical America and the closeness and craziness of families and communities at that time. It's an autobiographical remembrance by Allen, who directed but does not appear in this movie, that is heartfelt and nostalgic with a fine ensemble cast, including a performance by Mia Farrow (obviously before Soon-yi) that is very much unlike anything I had ever seen her do before or since. April 3, 2008

An American classic.

Radio Days "Radio Days", written and directed by Woody Allen, is, I believe, one of his best story telling efforts. I am 68 years old, but I fell in love with this film when it first came out in 1987. It just wrings true to the early 1940's era, which it is set in. Family life, while pictured 'these days' to have been simpler 'back then', had the same concerns, family drama and uncertanties about the future as we experience today. It is a mix of poignant human foibles and classic Woody Allen wry humor, in a dead-on war era America/New York. Five stars from me, Bill Finlay April 2, 2008

When radio was king

Woody Allen narrates the story of a romanticized boyhood during WWII, a time when the medium of radio was at its zenith. The loosely connected vignettes tell the stories of the boy (Seth Green) and his poor Jewish family, his perpetually disappointed and lovelorn aunt (Diana Weist), and a young woman striving to make it in show biz (Mia Farrow), interspersed with anecdotes about the personalities that entered America's homes through the airwaves every day. Allen shows us what radio meant to the people of that time, leaving even those of us who are too young to have experienced it ourselves feeling a little wistful and sad at its passing. This is a delightful movie. March 17, 2008

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